RESEARCH REPORT FROM THAILAND 1. General information ...

At present, most of the agricultural equipment used in Thailand is locally producedsuch as tractor, power tiller, disc ploughs, disk harrow, water pump, sprayer, threshingmachine, reaper, combine harvester, cleaning equipment, dryer, rice milling machines,and processing equipment etc. However local machines, produced from smallmanufacturer, are not standardized in quality, efficiency and durability. Some agriculturalmachines are import from overseas by companies for Thai agricultural productions.The information in Table 1 was obtained from survey of the top 70 agriculturalmachinery factories in Thailand in 2002.www.unapcaem.orgTable 1. Major products of Local manufacturer in ThailandMachineProduction in units per yearTwo wheel walking tractors 80,000Large tillage implement 3,000Small tillage implement 90,000Threshing machines 2,000Combine harvester 600Sprayers with hand operated 60,000Irrigation pump 55,000Source: The Agricultural Engineering Research Institute2. Information related to the use of agricultural machinery- Total amount of injuries and % of fatalitiesThe amount of accidents and injuries caused by agricultural machinery was notreported.In Thailand, a study has been conducted to assess the prevalence rate of accidentand of hearing loss of workers handling agricultural machines in 5 districts of UbonRatchatani Province. Total of 528 agricultural workers were selected as the casestudies. The study included the measurement of noise level caused by agriculturalmachines process during April to September 2008. Questionnaire results andhearing test were analyzed to assess the prevalence rate of accident and of hearingloss on workers according to handling agricultural machines. 55.2% of the averagesound levels (L Aeq ) measured by the SPL were in the range of 70 -79.9 dBA. Noneof the sound level results were higher than the safety standard. Total of 253 workers(97.1% males and 2.9% females), most of their ages range from 41 to 50 years, wereexamined their hearing abilities. The average working time of these workers was 9.4± 5.8 years. Hearing test results revealed that the prevalence rate of hearingabnormality of these workers was roughly 88.1% at all hearing level. It shouldconclude from this study that noise pollution caused by farm machinery process hassignificant impact on worker’s health and life quality. Therefore knowledge aboutsafety in handling this kind of machinery must be recognized by the workersthemselves.Source of data: Department of Disease Control (organization or indicate ifestimation)2012 - ANTAM - (www.unapcaem.org) page 2 of 5